Republic Denied: The Loss of Canada

Jeffrey J. Cormier is an assistant professor of sociology at the
University of Western Ontario in London.

This short book can be read as either a brilliant essay of exceptional
erudition or a rambling montage of pompous nonsense. Whichever
perspective one takes, one thing is certain: Governor General’s
Award–winning poet and journalist Fulvio Caccia’s “political
treatise” is unique because it defies classification. Originally
published in 1997 in French as La Républic Mкtis, this English
translation purports to be a treatise of political theory, but it reads
more like an affected concoction of poetry and prose.

If there is a discernable argument in this book it is that Canada
should abandon its colonial and monarchical past and embrace a new type
of political republicanism. Caccia attempts to develop the
not-entirely-clear notion of metissage, which would provide, according
to him, the basis of a new type of hybrid Canadian identity able to
transcend traditional identity cleavages. Caccia chastises the
political, commercial, and literary elites for denigrating the “Mкtis
identity”—a type of identity that serves throughout the text as a
metaphor for the positive mixing of different cultures. Once we face up
to our mixed identities, says Caccia, we can participate as citizens in
a lively and thoroughly authentic political life.

Arguing that the Canadian identity is in reality a mixture of many
cultures, languages, and ethnicities seems entirely reasonable. However,
in the hands of a poet all kinds of gibberish seem possible:
“Negritude and Canadianness each evoke the etymological notion of
barbarism.” Some fault must also go to translator Domenic Cusmano, who
annoyingly refuses to use gender-neutral language throughout the text.